Nobel Will Take Over Western School

Education Firm Seeking South Florida Properties

April 2, 1998|By LONA O'CONNOR Education Writer

The private Western School in North Lauderdale is being taken over by the Nobel education corporation.

The move makes Western the second of at least five private schools in South Florida to be built or absorbed by Nobel, an educational management company. The first, Chesterbrook Academy, a preschool and elementary school, is under construction in Pembroke Pines and is scheduled to open in June.

Western owners Leslie and Murray Simon will continue to run the school as consultants until they and Nobel agree the handoff is complete, said Kathy Willard, Nobel's executive director.

Nobel officials would not divulge the price of the school or the fees paid to the Simons.

The current staff will also stay on, Leslie Simon said. She said Nobel officials met with staff and parents this week.

``We chose the people who had the philosophy closest to ours. Sometimes a mom-and-pop can't do it all,'' said Simon, who has run the school for 20 years with her husband. ``We wanted someone who can continue what we've got, and take it to the next level.''

Western, which has about 460 children from preschool through eighth grade, charges $4,000 to $5,700 a year, depending on the grade. There are no immediate plans to raise tuition after the merger, Simon said. Western is not to be confused with the public Western High School in Davie.

In July, Nobel announced its intention to open at least five schools in South Florida, picking the area because of its rapid growth and parental dissatisfaction with public schools.

Nobel, based in Media, Pa., is one of the for-profit education management organizations taking advantage of increased interest in private schools. Nobel is a publicly traded company that operates 132 preschools and elementary-middle schools. The company specializes in managing medium-priced private schools open 12 hours a day to accommodate working parents.

The Nobel strategy is to create its own mini-school districts, using preschools to provide students for its elementary schools. In 1996, Nobel bought six Another Generation preschools, five in Broward County and one in Palm Beach County.

If parents have anything to say about it, the next Nobel school may well open in North Palm Beach, said Willard. The company operates a pre-kindergarten and kindergarten in Palm Beach Gardens, a fast-growing city in northern Palm Beach County.

``The parents would love to have an elementary school up there,'' she said.

According to Nobel officials, schools are being considered in Dade, Broward and Palm Beach counties.

When completed, the Pembroke Pines school will hold about 300 students, pre-kindergarten to eighth grade.

Nobel has sometimes been criticized for turning out ``cookie cutter'' schools. Academically, Nobel students rank at or better than the national averages on standardized tests.